Gloves have long been used to cover an individual's hand in various circumstances and conditions, such as to provide increased gripping ability to the individual's hands when working or playing sports. Gloves have been modified over the years to provide enhanced gripping ability or functionality to an individual wearing the gloves as a result of various additions made to the glove construction, including but not limited to various components attached to the exterior of the gloves, to the interior of the gloves, and modifications to the materials from which the gloves are manufactured.
To enhance these abilities of gloves, many different types of gloves are formed with a laminate construction. The laminate construction of these gloves provides the gloves with various layers of materials that enable the glove to have different attributes based on the types of materials forming the various layers off the glove.
However, while the different materials forming the various layers of the glove provide multiple options for the construction of gloves to provide the desired attributes to the glove, the laminate constructions of these type of gloves have inherent shortcomings with regard to the their construction. In particular, the laminate construction requires that the glove be constructed either of pieces of the selected pre-formed laminate material or by laminating the individual layers of the glove together after forming the layers into the desired shape for the glove.
In the first construction, while the formation of the laminate panels used to form the glove can be done relatively easily, the engagement of the panels into the ultimate form of the glove results in seams between the panels.
In the second construction, while the individual layers can potentially be formed without seams, the engagement of the layers with one another is problematic as it is very difficult to achieve a proper bond between the various layers in a consistent manner across the entire surface area of the glove, especially in those areas with limited exposed surface area, such as the tips of the fingers of the glove.
Therefore, it is desirable to develop a glove having a laminate construction to provide the desired attributes to the glove, but that can be formed with a secure connection between the various layers at key points on the glove without the need for seams that secure the layers of the laminate to one another.